Martin Luther King Jr. Day
18 January 2027
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is the federal holiday on the third Monday in January; in 2027 that is 18 January. Federal law calls it the Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. It honors the Baptist minister and civil rights leader who led the Montgomery bus boycott and the 1963 March on Washington, and who was assassinated in Memphis on 4 April 1968.
The holiday had to be fought for. Bills were introduced in Congress every year after King’s death. The one that passed was introduced in the House on 29 July 1983 by Representative Katie Hall of Indiana; the House approved it 338 to 90 in August, the Senate 78 to 22 in October, and President Ronald Reagan signed Public Law 98-144 on 2 November 1983.
The law took effect on 1 January 1986, and the first observance was on 20 January 1986. Not every state joined at once. Some kept a different or combined name, and New Hampshire was the last state to pass a holiday in King’s name: its governor signed the bill in June 1999, and the state observed the day for the first time in January 2000.
Because the holiday is tied to a Monday, the date moves between 15 and 21 January, and in some years it lands on King’s birthday itself. It closes federal offices, banks, post offices and most schools, and in many cities the day is marked by parades, church services and volunteer projects rather than by rest.
The same Monday is used for other things in the South. Timeanddate.com lists Robert E. Lee’s Birthday as a state holiday in Alabama and Mississippi on the third Monday in January, and both states also keep a Confederate Memorial Day later in the year. The overlap makes the January holiday a state matter as much as a federal one.
Sources
- Congressional Research Service, “Federal Holidays: Evolution and Current Practices” (R41990)
- H.R. 3706, 98th Congress, “A bill to amend title 5, United States Code, to make the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., a legal public holiday”
- U.S. Office of Personnel Management, “Federal Holidays”
- Cape Cod Times, “N.H. finally signs King holiday bill”, 8 June 1999
- Timeanddate.com, “Holidays and Observances in the United States in 2027”
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